"Nahr Alkelb, the ancient Lycus, is situated about two hours north-east of Beyrout. The rocks that sustain the road south of the river, preserve the remains of ten monuments of great interest, and of various epocha. The most ancient, but unfortunately the most corroded, are three Egyptian tablets: on them may be traced the name of Rameses, to which period any connoisseur in Egyptian art would have attributed them, if even the evidence of the name had been wanting, from the beautiful proportion of the tablet, and its cavetto moulding.

"The next in antiquity, also of great interest, are five Chaldæan tablets, four of which are not less effaced than their more ancient companions; but the highest one is as perfect as the least ancient monument this interesting spot affords, owing, perhaps, to its being more out of the spray of the sea, and farthest from the road; it represents a figure of a man in the long dress of the eastern nations, with a large beard, curiously plaited, holding in his right hand something like a fan, and in his left a stick. Nearly the whole of the background and dress of the figure is covered with the arrow-headed character, which is in many places perfectly well preserved.

"The hieroglyphic tablets have been protected by a kind of folding door, the holes for the hinges of which still remain. This circumstance is not at all incompatible with the stupendous works of the Egyptians, which seem to have been designed to resist the ravages of time, and to record to posterity the glorious deeds of their kings and heroes. Another circumstance, which may perhaps throw some light on the nature of these inscriptions, is, that the Egyptian and Chaldæan tablets are always together. From the first group, which is on the present road, you ascend out of the path to the second, which has also its accompanying Chaldæan figure, and, still higher, are two more. These last are far above the modern road; but from the appearance of the rocks, and the wide flat space about them, it may be concluded that the Egyptian conqueror had cut his path over the mountain in this place, which was afterwards traversed by the Chaldæan hero, who took the Jews into captivity."

The accompanying illustration (Fig. 30) may serve "to show the relative situation of the Egyptian and Chaldæan tablets, which is in some measure interesting; for it will be evident that the Chaldæan sculptor has taken advantage of the rock pre

pared by the Egyptian, who had already occupied the soundest and best part of it in the execution of his subject."

A very full description of these curious monuments is to be found at page 355 of "Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Peninsula of Sinai," by Dr. R. Lepsius, and published by Mr. H. G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, as well as accurate engravings of the monuments in the great Prussian work, "Denkmæler, aus Ægyptien und Ethieopien," vol. vii. Part III., Plate 197. We have been thus particular in pointing out these various sources of information on these important monuments of the Nahr al Kelb, because the existence of some of them has been called in question by M. de Sauley.

The cast of the Assyrian portion of this monument, which was made by the author of the present work and brought to England by him in 1834, was subsequently presented to the British Museum by his Grace the Duke of Northumberland.

The last Assyrian monument we shall describe is one found at Larnaka, the ruins of the ancient Citium in the Island of Cyprus; and we take occasion to thank our good friend Dr. Lepsius for the following particulars concerning it, which he has kindly sent in reply to our queries. The monument which was discovered in 1845 exactly resembles that at Nahr al Kelb, consisting of a circular-headed stone, which contains within a niche the figure of a man holding up his right hand, and

certain emblems engraved on the back ground on a level with the face of the man. The tablet is almost entirely covered with a cuneatic inscription. The dimensions of this tablet are six feet eight inches high, by two feet two inches wide, and the stone of which it is made, being of a black colour, has been called basaltic, though it appears rather to be a kind of lava. When the relic was first found, M. Mattei, the Prussian Consul at Cyprus, despatched an account of it, accompanied by a drawing, to his government, and the importance of the discovery being immediately acknowledged, the monument was at once purchased and deposited in the museum at Berlin. Memoirs respecting it have since been published in the Archæological Archives of S. Ross, Halle, 1846; and in the Revue Archéologique, 1846, p. 114; and the French Government have sought and obtained a cast, which is now in the Louvre. Rawlinson, in passing through Berlin on his way to the East, examined the tablet, and recognised in the figure of the king that of the founder of Khorsabad, but his brief sojourn did not admit of his then making further investigations. Dr. Lepsius is not aware that the inscription on this monument has been studied and deciphered by any one, but as Rawlinson took an impression in paper away with him, we turn to him for further light on this curious and interesting chronicle. In the mean time we may remark that a passage in Menander of Ephesus is preserved, which is corroborative of Rawlinson's surmise. The historian says, that the king of Tyre, Elulous, "fitted out a fleet against the Cittaans (the people of Cittium) who had revolted, and reduced them to obedience. But Salmanasar, the king of the Assyrians, sent them assistance, and overran Phoenicia : and when he had made peace with the Phoenicians he returned with all his forces." Joseph. Ant. Jud., lib. ix., c. 14.

Of other Assyrian remains whose existence is known, we were informed some years ago by M. Linant, that he had seen cuneatic inscriptions in the desert, between the Nile and the Red Sea; there is another at Dásh Tappeh, in the plain of Mirgaudab: one on the banks of the Euphrates, between the towns of Malatich and Kharput; some at Mel Amir; one on a broken obelisk on the mound of Susa; and the black stone found among the ruins of Nineveh, and now in the possession

L

of the Earl of Aberdeen. In the last section of this work we shall have occasion to notice some more recent discoveries of the same kind.

In conclusion, we may observe, that though many of the inscriptions are the chronicles of Median and Persian sovereigns, they still mark with equal certainty the extent of the preceding Assyrian empire; for the records being mostly trilingual, induces the natural inference that the dialect peculiar to Assyria was at that time prevalent, and probably the vulgate of the districts in which the tablets are found.

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SECTION IV.

DISCOVERIES.-THE PALACES OF ASSYRIA.

CHAPTER I.

KHORSABAD.

In elucidating the architecture and construction of the Assyrian palaces we have already turned for aid to Persepolis, the capital which immediately succeeded those of Assyria; and by a singular concurrence, many of those parts of the royal residences, which time or local circumstances have entirely removed from the ruins of Khorsabad, such as windows, columns, and the grand flights of stairs to the summit of the platform, are preserved in those of Persepolis; while many of those parts which are wanting at Persepolis, such as sculptured and painted walls, and successive courts and chambers, are found at Khorsabad, and in other Assyrian ruins.

So far as

The leading features which distinguished the royal and sacred buildings of Assyria from those of Egypt, are evidently, in the first place, the artificial mounds, by which they were raised 30 or 40 feet above the level of the plain on which they stood; and secondly, the architectural arrangements by which the summit of these mounds was attained. has hitherto been ascertained from the explorations at Khorsabad and elsewhere, the pedestal or sub-basement of the Assyrian buildings was not a mere accumulation of loose earth incrusted with stone or bricks, but was a regularly constructed elevation, built of layers of sun-dried bricks, so solidly united with the same clay of which the bricks themselves were made, that Botta was for some time doubtful whether it consisted only of a mass of clay well rammed together, as de